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Every now and then you see a product and you think, "Hmm, that might work." Often it doesn't, but sometimes you're pleasantly surprised. A few weeks ago, before our Sonoma trip, we came across eBags on Amazon and thought we'd give them a try just based on the simple concept of organizing your suitcase. All travelers know the problem: you arrive at a location and you need to change shirts or shoes or otherwise need just a single item out of your suitcase that happens to be packed at the bottom, beneath everything else. The option is to either unpack everything and then carefully repack it, or...

We've figured out that a key to this nomadic empty-nester middle-aged couple lifestyle is being opportunistic. Followers of our blog know that we vacationed in California wine country just this past summer. We loved it so much that when we were approached on homeexchange.com for an October exchange, we didn't have to think about it much: she had a family wedding in Atlanta to attend and offered her Sonoma weekend home in exchange for a week. Count us in. It was our first home exchange, and in our next blog we'll share our thoughts on this whole exchange thing. This trip was also an...

We've been taking dance lessons at our local Arthur Murray Studio since the beginning of this year: our first set of lessons was Chuck's Christmas present to Lori last year. We've wanted to take lessons since we were married: back when cable television had only about a dozen channels (yes, we've been married that long) it was easy to happen across the PBS broadcast of the national ballroom dance championships. It's great to see Dancing With the Stars revive interest in ballroom dancing, but it's been on our wishlist for much longer than the show's been around. So far we've gotten to "Bronze I...

If you've been reading our blogs, you'll know that we've developed quite a passion for wine, heavily reinforced by our summer trip to California wine country this year. Well, we're going back soon, so look out for more wine blogs! There seems to be no better example of the relationships between a land, it's crops (in this case grapes), and the local people than with wine. There are hundreds of different types (varietals) of grapes, all growing better in different climates and in different soils than others, and the people and their grapes have evolved on that land together, sometimes over...

For the next few blogs, at the risk of reinforcing a few stereotypes, we're going to explore some cultural parallels in cuisine, wine, and dance. Whether the latter are a result of the former, or if the former is influenced by the latter, we'll leave that to the sociologists (or whoever researches that sort of thing). We just think it's cool to think of how those things a culture has most proudly developed are often a reflection of that culture, and in fact I think it's the search of those interesting connections that keeps people who are addicted to travel (like us) going out for more. When...